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Soul Perception

Question to Radhanath Swami: As far as I know and as far as I have read in the religious books, it is said that the ultimate aim of self realization is soul perception. It is also said that a person cannot be trouble free, tension free or fearless until and unless one has attained the stage of soul perception. I would like to know how it is done. What is the actual meaning of this soul perception?

The great seers of the truth, they understand that what is temporary is not true reality. What is eternal is true reality. The soul is eternal. Reality is to understand our original spiritual substance, which is consciousness and which is part of God.

To live in harmony with our nature is Sanatana Dharma. There are many types of dharma. Dharma means that which is inseparable from one’s nature. For example, the dharma of sugar is sweetness and the dharma of chili pepper is to be hot. What is the dharma of every living being? Our dharma is to serve. Everyone has to serve. We have to serve the government; we have to serve our family members; we have to either serve our employers or our employees. We are always serving our senses. We are serving our mind. We cannot live without serving. What is Sanatana Dharma? That means the eternal original service of every living being and that is service to God.

So real soul perception is not only the gyan of understanding that I am the eternal soul, but to understand what is the nature of the soul. What is the quality of the soul? What are the activities of the soul?

The eternal nature of the soul is to please God, to serve God. Krishna explains in Bhagavad-Gita that the greatest service to God we can do in this world is to be an instrument of his compassion to enlighten others, not in a fundamentalist sectarian way, but in a compassionate way. So we hear about God, we read the holy words of God, we chant the names of God, to purify our hearts and access the grace of God within our own lives, for what purpose, so that our words and actions will be pure and we can do wonderful things.

Bhagavad-Gita says, “All that you do, all that you offer or give away, all that you eat, all charity that you perform, it should all be done as an offering to me.” What does that mean? It should be done in a spirit of being instruments of God’s love in this world, in service and to please him. That is practical soul perception and that is the means of attaining soul perception.

This chanting of mantra which delivers the mind from the egoistic contaminated pursuits, actually gives us realization of our eternal nature. We also must act according to that nature and speak according to that nature. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught

If the world will only follow this principle, what a wonderful place it would be to live in. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that to chant the name of the Lord in proper consciousness we should be humble like the blade of grass, tolerant like a tree; we should be eager to offer all respects to everyone and expect no respect for ourselves. No false prestige. If we practice these principles in a service attitude and chant God’s names then by the mercy of the Absolute we will have realization of the eternal